


Tinted World

by anysin



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adult Stans in second part, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Filbrick Pines Is A Jerk, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Stans, M/M, Sibling Incest, nothing explicit takes place though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-13 21:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15373323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anysin/pseuds/anysin
Summary: In a world where people start to see in color only after they meet their soulmates, Stan and Ford always see in color.





	1. Tinted World

Ever since they are born, Stan and Ford can see in color.

For many years, they don’t realize this is not the case for everyone. They don’t know that in the eyes of other people the world is black, white and grey for a long time after they are born, until they meet the one they’re supposed to spend their life with. When a chance remark about the ocean and the sky kind of looking the same gives them up to their parents, Filbrick and Sandra can only make one conclusion: both Stan and Ford are meant to be alone forever.

“You can’t go talking about this to anyone,” Filbrick tells them, never the one to soften blows. “People will think you are weirdos and freaks, and you two already have hard time. Don’t make it worse for yourselves.”

Filbrick doesn’t look at Ford when he says that, but the implication is clear, making Ford flinch while Stan boils inside with rage. When they go to the beach that night, as they often do, they look at it with new eyes this time, at the blues of the oceans and the orange glow of the setting sun. It’s all been beautiful to them before, their horizon made of dreams. Now, it’s full of sadness, of futures with no love in them.

“Do you think it’s my hands?” Ford asks Stan. “Maybe that’s why I don’t have anyone? Other people have just five fingers.”

“It’s not your hands,” Stan snaps, too angrily; when Ford’s face falls, he feels bad immediately, reaching out to wrap his arm around Ford’s shoulders.

“Hey, it can’t be your hands. I don’t have one either and I have five fingers.” Stan thinks about it for a moment, frowning. “Maybe I’m too stupid to have one? But that doesn’t explain you.”

“Yeah.” Ford lifts his arm around Stan’s neck, giving him a tight squeeze. “You’re not too stupid though.”

“That’s a beautiful lie.”

“Stan.” Ford shakes his head a little before resting it on Stan’s shoulder, sighing. “So we’re both freaks, huh?”

“And weirdos.” Stan leans his cheek against Ford’s hair. “You know, other kids already think so. Does this change anything?”

Ford shrugs, which makes some of his hair tickle Stan’s nose. “Well, people get married when they grow up. You probably can’t if you don’t have a soulmate.” Ford pulls away from him a little so he can look at Stan, frowning. “Does that make you sad?”

Stan laughs. “Sad? What would I ever do with a girl?” He pats Ford on the back, then nudges him in the ribs. “Besides, I have you to look after. I don’t have time for marriage!”

Ford looks a little unsure, but much to Stan’s relief, he’s starting to smile, even chuckling a bit as he returns Stan’s nudge with his own elbow.

“I think you would be bad at it anyway.”

“Hey!” Stan launches himself at Ford, wrestling him down to the sand; Ford is laughing now, the sound of it bright like bells, hitching higher when Stan decides it’s time to tickle him. Ford lets him have it right back, the sand dusting up around them as they scuffle, until Ford manages to pin Stan down from his wrists, sitting on top of his legs.

“Gotcha!” Ford is giggling, the soft light of the lowering sun illuminating his brown hair from behind, giving it a golden glow. Stan smiles up at him, full of wonder, thinking that this is how things should be: he and Ford forever, playing and having fun and dreaming, not caring about wives and marriages. They don’t need any of that, none of that soulmate stuff. They have each other. That’s better.

“Get your big butt off me,” he says, and Ford laughs at him a little more before obeying, stretching his hand out to Stan to help him to get up. Stan doesn’t hesitate to take that hand, follow Ford wherever his brother wants him to go.


	2. Whitewashed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Separated by the portal, Stan and Ford come to some conclusions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This is sad.

With everything else that’s going on after Ford is sucked into the portal, it takes a while for Stan to notice that he sees differently now.

He discovers it one day when he’s doing his fake taxidermy, trying to construct a rooster with massive vampire teeth. He wants it to look as flashy as possible, imagining it with deep purple feathers; he is getting ready to mix fabric dyes in the water to get the shade he wants. But once he starts the mixture process, he quickly realizes something is wrong.

It’s all blue to him.

He can see that the original blue is changing, but the color that takes over the water is still blue to his eyes; he knows for a fact it shouldn’t be. He’s not one of those people who can’t tell purple apart from blue, and he’s pretty sure there is no good reason for him to not suddenly see purple anymore when his eyesight in general is unchanged. His first thought is that it has to be something serious, like a brain tumor.

It never occurs to him it might have something to do with soulmates.

“This is known to happen with victims of brain trauma and their partners,” the doctor tells him when Stan finally drags himself over to one. “If an individual suffers major damage to their brain, their soulmate will experience a loss in the range of colors they can see in response. It’s as if person’s brain being damaged is seen as their soul being away from this world.”

The doctor gives him an inquiring look. “Is your soulmate unwell, Mr. Pines? 

Answer to that should be easy. Stan doesn’t have a soulmate, unwell or otherwise; he’s just always seen in colors, just like his brother Ford has. They were both freaks, never belonging to anyone except each other, only that had turned out to be untrue too. And-

-and that’s the only answer he needs.

"You could say that,” he says.

He gets up and leaves without another word; he prefers to have his breakdowns at home. He’s going to be thinking of Ford being away from this world.

*

It takes longer for Ford to notice the difference; the Nightmare Realm is such an assault on all senses that everything he encounters afterward is dull in comparison, and then he’s too busy trying to stay alive to care that his color vision is now lacking.

Until, of course, it becomes the matter of life and death.

"Sir, please!” He has come across refugees from Earth, victims of the Bottomless Pit. One of them is sick. “Please, he needs something to relieve his pain! Can you make him something?”

Ford barely has any information about this dimension and its plant life, but he tries. He goes out there with a book on helpful herbs and other things in his hand, trying to find things that will help him create a natural pain killer. He comes back with a sampling of plants, only to be humiliated when he’s told one of them is the wrong one.

“It was almost the right, the colors are very similar,” they say to comfort him. He accepts the consolation, but his mistake starts bothering him soon.

Private testing confirms his suspicion; he sees less colors than before, although it’s mostly the subtle differences that are lost to him. Trying a temporary vision booster doesn’t do anything to improve the situation, which implies that the problem is not physical in nature.

For some time, he tries his best not to think about the implications of that.

It’s easy for as long as he has to focus all his energies on survival. Once that becomes less of an issue, once he gets used to his new, chaotic life- when he starts having more opportunities to actually sleep peacefully for a night, more time to think before he falls asleep-

That’s when he can’t stop thinking of Stan.


End file.
